COXSWAIN ALBERT SPURGEON, of Lowestoft, who died on the 5th of April, 1953, at the age of 73, had been one of the Institution's most distin- guished coxswains. According to the local records he joined the life-boat crew in his teens, and served in it for 45 years. He was appointed coxswain in 1929, and retired in 1947. During nearly 24 years as coxswain he took part in the rescue of 159 lives.

In 1922 he won the bronze medal for gallantry, as a member of the crew, for the famous service to the steamer Hopelyn, wrecked on the North Scroby Sands, and in 1927, as coxswain, he won the silver medal for the rescue of the crew of three of the sailing smack Lily of Devon, a rescue carried out with great promptness and courage in face of the greatest danger.

Then, in the war of 1939 to 1945, he won a bar to his bronze medal for the rescue, by night, of the crew of ten of H.M. minesweeper 106. This was in 1943, and it was a service which again showed the daring and courage of the man. As the life-boat moved out of harbour lit by a searchlight, the light was switched off, and for the first moment of darkness Coxswain Spur- geon was blind. In that moment the life-boat struck the pier. She was undamaged, but he was flung against the binnacle and his jaw cut open. He would not leave the wheel, nor, until the life-boat was at sea, would he even stop to have his wound bound up.

Then he searched for and found the minesweeper, knowing all the time that he was among the submerged iron piles of the coast defences, but not knowing their exact positions. Not until nine hours after he was injured was he able to go to hospital. There he had eight stitches put in his jaw. Even then he would not go off duty. He was at that time a man of sixty-three.

He lectured to the Little Ship Club in London on the Life-boat Service, and in 1927, a fortnight before the service to the Lily of Devon, he and his crew manned a life-boat in the Lord Mayor's Show in London. On his retirement he was awarded a certificate of service and an annuity..